Video link: http://ech.case.edu/ech-cgi/article.pl?id=FAF

Matt Dickman is a tough guy. He’s from Cleveland: You Gotta Be
Tough!

He’s posted a video of Yahoo! Mash (beta) on his site, Techno//Marketer.
The beta versions are by invite only, so if you’ve been invited to signup
(we’re jealous) you might not need to watch his review.

It’s a recommended watch if for nothing else than he’s
inserted himself into the clip. That’s the kind of brand spunk you get from a
tough Clevelander. 

Matt’s key point is that the beta version is begging for crowdsourcing, to let the
people and the developers get their hands on it, which makes complete sense.

Matt gives a listing of the features and modules, comparing
them to Facebook and MySpace, like Sean
P. Aune who describes it as a primordial version of Facebook 

Neither mentions one of the key features which is inherent
in the name:

 <img src="/images/64360-56413/Yahoo_Mash.png” border=”0″ width=”164″>

As Lee
Odden describes it, it’s about mashing other people’s profiles, which may
be fun and just in time for pre-Halloween.

Scott
Karp offers interesting insight about the assumptions that developers make
about its users, the main one being that Mash thinks he’s a teenager interested
in expressing all the quirkiness that makes him UNIQUE.

Michael
Calore says this. Compared to the more-established social hubs on the web,
Mash is a lightweight offering. It has its share of the usual widgets and
games, but unlike almost every other social network, there’s no blogging
component, no photo-management tool, and no e-mail or contact management. Mash
isn’t the platform, Yahoo is the platform.

Whatever the final outcome of Mash, we have to admire the
behind the scenes marketing that is driving the beta release. 

1. Like
   the gmail beta, they’ve made it somewhat exclusive by invitation only
2. They
   whole mash-it-up profile bending will appeal to teens (like those behind
   the growth of Myspace and Facebook). It’s fun even though they probably
   don’t need another social online community built around them. (Today’s
   teen consumers are tomorrow’s adult consumers, think
   longtail.)
3. The
   rest are likely media & tech professional checking it out. When the
   novelty of mashing wears off, Yahoo! might actually have caught on with
   some other nifty applications freely developed. Like an online focus
   group, they threw out bait to see what’s biting.

The Bottom Line: We’ll get
back to you on this one . . .

<img src="/images/64360-56413/Carp.jpg” border=”0″ width=”441″>